Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya’s recent sparring session at City Kickboxing, the home of ‘The Last Stylebender’, has taken the MMA world by storm. The pair have gone from stark rivals to training partners in a stunning turn of events that has been gladly welcomed by fans.
‘The Reaper’ returned to his birthplace of New Zealand hoping to secure some solid training rounds. With Adesanya in the final stages of preparing for his UFC Saudi Arabia clash with Nassourdine Imavov on Feb. 1, Whittaker’s presence at City Kickboxing was no doubt be appreciated by the former two-time middleweight champion.
Following footage of their sparring session going viral online, the Australian was interviewed by mainevent, where he reflected on the experience and said:
“Yeah, it’s a funny world, honestly. If you would have asked me a few years ago if I’d ever seen this coming, the answer would have been, ‘Not in 100 years.’ Where we were with the team back home, one of my training partners got injured, a couple of the boys retired, had other committments they wanted to focus on.”
Robert Whittaker continued:
“We started looking around and like a lightening bolt realized that City Kickboxing is only a two-and-a-half hour flight away. They’ve got the bodies, it’s New Zealand, the place of my birth. Everything just started lining up… We’re getting along.”
Catch Robert Whittaker’s comments on training with Israel Adesanya below (0:50):